Star Power
Justin Timberlake showed up on the Las Vegas radar almost 10 years ago when 'N Sync appeared at the Thomas & Mack Arena for a New Year's Day 1999 concert.
The group's opening act was a 17-year-old pop artist named Britney Spears. Her just-released debut single "... Baby One More Time" was soaring to No. 1.
Timberlake was almost 18 and they had just started dating.
On the night before their concert, they joined about 200,000 revelers on the blocked-off Strip to ring in a new year.
Hanging out with them were some of Britney's dancers and a 23-year-old Stacy Ann Ferguson, then a lead singer of a girl group named Wild Orchid.
"We couldn't get in any bars, so we just had fun walking up and down the Strip," one of Spears' male dancers told me during Britney's New Year's Eve 2006 host appearance at Pure nightclub in Caesars Palace.
They were on the road to stardom. Timberlake and Spears' careers were exploding. Ferguson would hit it big a few years later when she joined the Black Eyed Peas and became better known as Fergie.
Timberlake, a Grammy and Emmy award winner since going solo, is in town to host the annual PGA tour stop, now known as the Justin Timberlake Shriners Hospitals for Children Open.
He's hosting tonight's "Justin Timberlake and Friends," a benefit for the Shriners Hospitals for Children, at the Planet Hollywood Theatre for the Performing Arts. Read more about the event and Timberlake in Jason Bracelin's story in Sounds.
PARTY CENTRAL:
Timberlake is hosting the official after-concert party at Privé tonight. ... Seth MacFarlane, creator of "Family Guy" and "American Dad," is celebrating his 35th birthday at Tao (The Venetian) tonight. ... "Baywatch" hunk Jeremy Jackson hosts at Christian Audigier The Nightclub (Treasure Island) on Saturday. ... Blush (Wynn) celebrates its one-year anniversary Saturday.
BEST PLACE TO WATCH THE GOLF TOURNAMENT THIS WEEKEND:
Head for The Hill, a 22,000-square-foot luxury entertainment pavilion that overlooks the 16th, 17th and 18th holes. Admission to the tournament is $15 and a Hill pass is another $10.
VINNIK LANDS CARNEGIE DEBUT:
Local opera singer Suzanne Vinnik, whose Carnegie Hall debut has been set for May 28, is performing at 8 p.m. today with the Nevada Opera Theatre in the Doc Rando Recital Hall at the Beam Music Center on the campus of the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.
Vinnik, 21, will be singing scenes from "Manon" and "Lucia di Lammermoor."
She graduates in December from Texas Christian University. She attended Cimarron-Memorial High School for two years before finishing at Las Vegas Academy of International Studies, Visual and Performing Arts.
She is the daughter of local retired plastic surgeon Dr. Charles Vinnik.
COMING UP:
Headline-generating starlet Lindsay Lohan returns to Pure (Caesars Palace) on Nov. 7 to showcase her new line of leggings, 6126 By Lindsay Lohan.
The event is a benefit for ovarian cancer research. Her gal pal, DJ Samantha Ronson will be working the turntable. ...
Bad boy Charlie Sheen is hosting at Privé (Planet Hollywood Resort) on Oct. 25.
TODAY'S FEATURED SIGNING:
Giada De Laurentiis, the popular host of Food Network's "Everyday Italian" and "Giada's Weekend Getaways," is signing her new cookbook, "Giada's Kitchen: New Italian Favorites," from 5 to 7 p.m. today at Sur La Table inside the Miracle Mile Shops at Planet Hollywood Resort.
NOW FOR SOMETHING DIFFERENT:
Check out the Slick Willie Orchestra every Tuesday at the Square Apple (formerly Just Jazz), 1000 E. Sahara Ave. The eight-piece blues group with horns features Ronnie Rose and Tommy Alvarado. They play from 10 p.m. to 1:30 a.m. The Square Apple is open from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m.
BEST-NAMED HALLOWEEN EVENT:
The Imperial Palace's fifth annual "Scary-okee" Halloween karaoke party on Oct. 30 and Oct. 31. Party from 9 p.m. to 3 a.m. and choose your tune at the "Wheel of Terror," which features such Halloween standards as "Monster Mash" and "Werewolves of London."
Norm Clarke can be reached at 702-383-0244 or norm@reviewjournal.com. Find additional sightings and more online at www.normclarke.com. His new book, "Vegas Confidential: Sin-sational Celebrity Tales," comes out in November.
